I own some June 2022 $110 Call options. I placed a sell order between the bid and the ask to close a single contract yesterday and again today and I’ve noticed the following: Immediately a larger seller (seems like a computer) comes along and offers a better price with more contracts. If I close the spread further between bid and ask the process repeats. And the price the other guy offers carries almost no time value. Just a teeny bit above the intrinsic value of the option.
Bear in mind that “the other fella” is almost certainly a computer.
People work hard to find strategies to make a “free” bit of money from the markets, so every strategy you can imagine is being played at the same time.
Near the midpoint it’s rare to get a fill, and common for someone to come in ahead of you.
But as you get further across the bid/ask gap, they’ll tend to back off, as there isn’t much free money to be had.
Your offer will tend to remain the best one in the market as you get away from the midpoint.
For Berkshire options, it’s rare to have to pay more than 70-75% of bid/ask gap.
If you didn’t manage that, I’m a little surprised.
This situation changes a little for the worse when an option has very little time left to expiry. (a month or so)
Occasionally it’s impossible to sell a short dated option for its intrinsic value. (the options trader meaning of the word, not the Berkshire investor meaning of the word)
In that case, I either sell for a loss of a penny or two, or exercise the option and sell the stock instead.
Usually I don’t hold options that close to expiry.
Jim
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The easiest way is sell a ITM call, and then exercise both calls. You get a much better execution and total value realization.